LA Artcore is pleased to present the work of these two Los Angeles painters Henrik Vardeniktsy and Mark Strickland. Watch the video of this exhibition.

Don’t miss this rare opportunity to view seventeen new paintings by Los Angeles artist, Henrik Vardeniktsy. This exhibition at LA Artcore’s Brewery Annex space is a must-see for anyone interested in art, and especially those with a passion for European Modernism. 

Born in the Martuny Region of Armenia, Vardeniktsy’s paintings clearly resonate his Modernist lineage with Surrealist compositions and vivid tangents recalling not only the works of Joan Miro and Wassilly Kandinsky, but, uncannily echo Los Angeles’ industrial landscape.

As fellow artist Arevshat Avagian wrote: In all of his work he attempts to reproduce the emotions of our inner world, our psyche. Each picture is the continuation of the previous one, the organic beginning of something new. Thus, picture after picture these images and phantoms collect and become integral to Henrik Vardeniktsy's creative work.

Vardeniktsy graduated from the painting department of Yerevan P. Terlemezian College and after serving in the Soviet Army, pursued and completed an advanced degree in painting from Yerevan Art and Theatre Institute. Currently, he divides his time between studios in Yerevan Armenia and Los Angeles, CA, and continues to exhibit his work internationally

Mark Strickland has studied both art and psychology, and his large-scale figurative paintings examine the complexities and riddles of the human condition. Strickland’s paintings are saturated with bold color and his gestural brushstrokes heavy with paint, define the energy of the compositions. His figures contort with emotions, and are connected to each other by a shared rhythm and history. Sometimes the characters are found floating through space, while others are examined in cinematic close-ups, revealing people who are conflicted by their own imperfections as well as those of others. Strickland delves into the dualities inherent in human nature, and while suffering and degradation are noted, he views his subjects with compassion, emphasizing the capacity for hope and empathy in the human spirit.

Strickland has exhibited his work throughout the United States and internationally. Currently he has studios in Los Angeles, where he is a professor at Art Center College of Design, in Pasadena, CA and in the south of France, where he conducts yearly painting seminars.